Truck ban to keep heavy haulers from local roads

While Northville Township and Wayne County officials were at the intersection of Six Mile celebrating the no-truck traffic signage on March 23, the driver of this gravel-hauler tried to head north on Napier, but seeing the posted ban, did a U-turn and headed back south toward Five Mile.(Photo: JOHN HEIDER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)Buy Photo

New rules in western Northville Township for the drivers of commercial trucks are designed to make life quieter and safer for people who live and go to school nearby.

Signs went up last week banning commercial truck traffic from Six Mile between Ridge and Napier, and from Napier between Eight Mile and Six Mile. The move followed more than a year of lobbying efforts by township officials, including Supervisor Bob Nix, and the approval of a traffic control order by the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.

The ban is intended to keep keep heavy trucks, particularly those heading to the Arbor Hills landfill and the Calo & Sons concrete crushing operation, both in Salem Township, off local roads, where they've brought noise, raised dust and destroyed unpaved stretches of road, Nix said. Violators could be subject to a fine of at least $150 per incident.

"This has been a perennial problem for years and years," said Nix, who gathered with other local officials at Six Mile and Napier one afternoon last week to announce the ban.

Nix said he had worked on the issue for about a year with officials in the county's public services department.

"We're really pleased with the county's efforts here," he said. Also present were county Commissioners Terry Marecki, who represents the township, and Joe Barone, who represents neighboring Plymouth Township.

Nix said truckers would routinely ignore the local speed limit, and that the big trucks kick up clouds of dust and cause excess noise. The traffic was a problem for the county, Nix said, because the trucks would tear up the gravel roads within weeks of regrading. The county is responsible for maintaining local roads in the township.

Truckers hauling trash to Arbor Hills or concrete to Calo & Sons are supposed to use the freeway system to get to Beck Road, then travel on Five Mile, Nix said. The trucks going to Arbor Hills can go north on Napier to a landfill entrance just south of Six Mile, while the trucks going to Calo & Sons can get there via Chubb Road, which is further west.

Nix said exceptions to the ban can be made for commercial trucks making local deliveries, and for the garbage trucks making weekly curbside trash pickups in two nearby subdivisions. Drivers of the latter, he said, can head straight to Arbor Hills to dump trash, as that is more efficient that forcing them to travel to a distant transfer station only to have the trash return in a larger hauler.

Operations at Arbor Hills should not be affected by the ban, said Joe Kohn, a spokesman for Advanced Disposal. The company had asked truckers last summer to avoid the routes along which commercial trucks are now banned.

"This actually follows and reinforces what we’ve been communicating to our trucking customers all along," Kohn said. "We did send them an email about the new signs last week, using it as another opportunity to highlight the designated route and thank them for being mindful of it and of our neighbors."

Between 200 and 300 trucks a day stop at Arbor Hills, Kohn said.

Nix said Advanced had been cooperative, but that not every trucker passing through the area had followed the suggested routes.

Nearby resident Dave Horan, who lives in the Steeplechase subdivision, said he's pleased with the new regulation.

"With the new 'no truck' signs signs going up on Six Mile and Napier roads (north of Six Mile), I am hopeful that the truck traffic issue of Arbor Hills will be much improved," he wrote in an email.

However, Horan continued, he'd rather that trucks heading to the landfill avoid Wayne County altogether, as it doesn't see any tax benefits from the operation, which is in Washtenaw County.

mjachman@hometownlife.com

734-678-8432

Twitter: @mattjachman

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Northville Township Supervisor Bob Nix shakes hands with Wayne County Commissioner Terry Marecki on March 23 at Six Mile and Napier. Marecki and Wayne County and township officials worked together to get commercial trucks banned from Napier north of Six Mile and from Six Mile between Napier and Ridge. Local residents had complained for years of loud trucks running through their neighborhoods while on the way to and from businesses in neighboring Salem Township.(Photo: JOHN HEIDER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)